Brassiere



No'v. 1, 1949, L. HUNAU I 2,486,414

BRASSIERE Filed July 10, 1945 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 1, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,486,414 BRASSIERE Lillian Hunau, Brooklyn, N. Y., now by change of name Lillian H. Sayers Application July 10, 1945, Serial No. 604,116

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to womens garments and more particularly to brassieres.

An object of the invention is to provide a brassiere having breast pockets, which, when in use, are each sustained in all directions by supporting bands and kept laterally spaced apart, thereby affording proper ventilation and avoiding harmful distortion of the tissues.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the strain on the garment and particularly on the pockets is eventually distributed throughout the body of the garment, thus providing for the maximum of ease and comfort in wear.

Brassieres have been proposed in which strain members are carried from below each breast pocket to join the shoulder strap on the opposite side, but such garments have not provided adequate control of the position of the garment upon the body, and have not secured the best control of the lateral contour of the breast tissue.

In accordance with this invention there is provided a brassire which includes a body with oppositely arranged vertical side bands or strips. Supporting bands extend from beneath each breast pocket in both directions. One of these leads upwardly to meet the side band and the other is attached to a shoulder strap above the opposite pocket. A similar strain member leads directly from each shoulder strap to the side band on the same side to retain the shoulder strap in place, to support the side band against the pull of the other strain member attached to it, and to help to form the contour of the breast tissue.

The other end of the shoulder straps is connected to the back portion of the garment.

These and other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part be more fully brought out in the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Of the drawing:

Figure 1 is a front view of a brassiere made in accordance with the invention; and

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the brassiere shown in Fig. 1.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, the preferred embodiment of the invention therein illustrated comprises a body I of any desired material, having oppositely arranged vertical side bands or strips 2 and 3. Between these strips are disposed a pair of breast pockets 4 and 5, which are of the conventional cone-shape, produced by vertical seams 6 and I running from the bottom of the body I to apices B and 9 of the respective pockets 4 and 5. Also, there are sewn seams I0 and II from points midway of the body I horizontally in the direction of the respective apices and seams l2 and I3, from the outer upper portion of the pockets 4 and 5, respectively, toward the center thereof. A pair of back portions I4 and I5 extend, one from each side strip, and are provided with fastening devices to which further reference will be made.

In accordance with one feature of the invention, the breast pockets 4 and 5 are supported in all directions by bands I6 and IT. The band I5 extends from a point It in the lower part of the side strip 3 up to meet a shoulder strap II] at point 20. Thence it extends downwardly as shown at El around the adjacent pocket 5 and down and under the lower part of the other pocket 4 to a point p 22, and thence upwardly again as shown at 23 to a point 24 in the upper part of the opposite side strip'Z. The band I! in similar fashion extends from a point in the lower part of the side strip 2 up and around the upper part of the pocket 4 and down and around the lower part of the other pocket 5 and to a point in the upper part of the side strip 3. Preferably the bands Iii and I! are sewn to the body I and also to each other, where they cross, and also to the side strips '2 and 3, as indicated in Figure 1. These bands, when subjected to stress, by means and in a manner presently to be described, tend to lie fiat against the body of the wearer, and therefore, are preferably made narrow in order to avoid exerting any undue pressure on tissues extending outwardly from the body.

The tops of pockets 4 and 5 preferably extend substantially straight across as shown at 4a and 5a. One shoulder strap I9- is fastened to the top 5a of pocket 5 and thence it extends upwardly to meet and be attached to the high point 20 of band IBabove the pocket. The other end is attached to back portion l4 at 25. The other shoulder strap I9a is similar. It will be seen that the strain of the shoulder straps on the garment is in part sustained by the supporting bands It the upper parts of the pockets 4 and 5 and the back portion [5 to the outer lower end of the back portion 15. And another stress member 28 runs along the bottom of the body I and the back portions l4 and I5 from the lower outer end of the back portion 14 to the outer end of the back portion 15, where the member 2'! ends. Here it may be noted that, for purposes of ventilation, preferably' there is practically no body portion between the upper parts of the pockets 4 and 5. Beneath the pockets, however, the body extends between the back parts [4 and [5 to form therewith a belt 29 which is fastened to the body of the wearer by the fastening means presently to be described.

This central portion may be made of an inelastic material, but I prefer to use a material having lateral elasticity such as a rubber elastic fabric.

With the parts as thus constructed and coordinated, it will be seen that, when tension is applied to the garment and particularly to the ends of the back portion, as by means of the fastening devices, the pulling effect will be distributed throughout the entire width of each back portion and of the body of the garment, the lines of stress following the stress members 21 and 28 and being by them communicated to the fabric of the garment and to the side strips 21 and 3 and supporting bands l6 and 11.

This distribution of the lines of lateral stress will be initiated and furthered, in accordance with another feature of the invention, by fastening devices provided at the ends of the respective back parts M and i5. These fastening devices may be fashioned in various ways; always provided, however, that the tension or pulling effect exerted through said fastening devices is applied evenly to the stress members 21 and 28.

A further feature of the invention relates to the means provided for fastening together the back parts of the garment.

Preferably and as shown, the back portion is provided with a tail piece 30 furnished with eyes 3| and the back portion 14 is provided with a tail piece 32 having a hook 33. It will be observed that the tail piece 30 is horizontally and centrally disposed with relation to the end of the back portion l5 and that the eyes 3t are also horizontally spaced apart in central relation to the tail piece 30. Similarly, the tall 32 is horizontally and centrally disposed with relation to the end of the back portion I4, and the hook 33 is located vertically centrally of the tail piece 30. With this arrangement of these parts the pulling effect is distributed in the desired manner recited. While three eyes are shown, it will be obvious that this number may be varied, if desired. A further advantage of this arrangement of the hook and eyes resides in the fact that the garment may thus be adjusted to various sizes. It will also be noted that the strain on the shoulder straps will be borne in part by the supporting bands and in part by the stress members following the body and back portions, as heretofore described.

It will be noted that a brassiere constructed as thus shown and described will carry out the purposes of the invention as recited, while possessing other advantages which will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Furthermore it will be seen that the breast tissue is supported directly from beneath by strain members extending upwardly in both directions, while the conformation of the upper portion of the breast is maintained by downward pull in both directions from the upper surface. The horizontal strains are thus balanced on both upper and lower faces of the breast, and the vertical strains are distributed on both sides of each breast, while preventing undue bulging of the tissue upwardly.

Moreover as will be seen, the straight reinforced top of each breast pocket helps to take the lateral strains and keep the breast tissue in place. Thus the tension placed on the sides of the pocket keep the tissue confined within the pocket on all sides keeping the tissue from sliding out toward the under arm or toward the center.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the precise construction shown and described as changes may be made in the details thereof without departing from the main principles of the invention or sacrificing its chief advantages.

I claim:

A brassiere having a reinforcing belt encircling the body beneath and in alignment with the breast, said brassire being separated into a front section and back section by vertical side seams at the out edges of the breasts, extending from below the bottom of the breasts to a point above the center thereof, said front section having breast pockets attached thereto on the sides and bottom and a pair of narrow supporting bands for said pockets, lying outside the periphery of the breast pockets, each extending from an intermediate portion of one of said side seams, over the top of the adjacent breast pocket, thence downwardly below the other breast pocket and having its other end attached to an intermediate portion on the other side seam, and a shoulder strap attached to the top of each supporting band.

LILLIAN HUNAU.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,079,426 Schottenfels May 4, 1937 2,131,213 Becker et al Sept. 27, 1938 2,202,058 Malnick May 28, 1940 2,337,810 Glick Dec. 28, 1943 2,362,974 Cohen Nov. 21, 1944 2,374,093 Gluckin Apr. 17, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 663,283 France Apr. 8, 1929 411,423 Great Britain May 31, 1934 

